Which project would help my career the most?

ToffeeApple

Hi all

I have come to a bit of a cross roads and need your advice.

I will first tell you a bit about me. I have been working as a Casino Games Artist for the last year (making both 2D and 3D assets). I enjoy this job and am in no current hurry to leave, however, I do wish to ultimately be a 3D Environment Artist. This means I want to be taking the right steps towards my goal and not going a long route around the houses.

In my spare time I have been working on an Indie Game for the last year and a half. It is a really fun project where I have done a lot of low poly work with hand painted textures.

I've made weapons and characters - http://clairewarren.carbonmade.com/projects/5016244

More recently I am working on the environment (this will be using a mixture of pre made and bought assets). I have developed a map and will assemble it in Unity.

Alongside this I started a personal project – an environment with a realism style. I really want to improve my environment art and get my portfolio updated.

My last environment project - http://clairewarren.carbonmade.com/projects/5016227

So I made a clear schedule taking into account both commitments and my day job. This means I only really have evenings and weekends to work on these projects. I've realised that'd take me 2 years to finish my personal project. This seems too long and I want to have it completed in a year. I realise that I will also have some work to show from the Indie game but I'm starting to wonder whether I am stretching myself too thin. I must also mention that I have an emotional commitment to the Indie game – and this is partly what is making this a difficult decision. The Indie game has no set date of completion and it appears it could be a good few years before it is done.

So the main question is should I continue work on the Indie Game or focus entirely on my personal project?

Thanks in advance!

EarthQuake

If you're an organized and committed person (which it seams like from the fact you have time estimates for your tasks) I would say go with the person project. The reason for this is simple, the personal project can be designed to help you work on the key areas you wish to improve in, and you can target the art style and technical specs to the type of work you want to be doing. Really, a vert good piece of advice is if you want a certain role in the games industry, your portfolio should reflect that. If you want to work at Naughty Dog, I expect to see a portfolio full of lush, realistic environments created to current gen spec.

PyrZern

I think indie proj is for people looking for 'experience', but you already have that from the casino game job you already have.

If you have to pick one, I'd say you stick to your personal proj. As you can do whatever you want with it. Great and epic and awesome and next-gen or anything. Just make it great.

JamesArk

I'd say choose the personal project. Assets you make for the game might not necessarily be portfolio worthy stuff - crates or tables or whatever - whereas the personal project is likely something you'll be able to push the quality on and make stuff that will stand out.

Also, echoing what EarthQuake said, you can focus on improving while doing the personal project in ways that might not be possible/convenient for the Indie project.

ToffeeApple

Thank you all for the replies. I have been thinking upon the advice and shall be committing to the personal project

Earthquake – You make some very good points. Yes considering that I can specifically target areas in my personal project; this is reason alone to choose it. I know the kind of art I want to create (it is of the lush, realistic kind) however I am not sure which company I'd want to work for. This is something I need to figure out so I can target a company. On a side note – I really admire your work (that camera!) and find your Marmoset tutorials so helpful.

Pyrzem – Yes good point on the experience part. It appears that I have outgrown working on the Indie game; I just struggled to recognise it and thought that in some way it would put me in the right direction. I realise now that it's just not that focussed and I need to get myself on the right path.

Great and epic and awesome and next-gen or anything. Just make it great.

Love this sentiment. 'Just make it great' good advice for anything in life

James Ark – Yep it's got to all come down to what is good for my portfolio. You and Earthquake got me thinking that when producing work in the workplace or even on an Indie game there is a lot less development of skills as you are just repeating ways you know that work. It doesn't have the same freedom to experiment. I guess that's because you don't have the freedom to fail so much so stick to what you know works.

Add3r

ToffeeApple wrote: »

-snip- (this will be using a mixture of pre made and bought assets) -snip-

I would stray away from using art purchased in portfolio environments personally.

ToffeeApple

Thanks for the tip Add3r - is that because I don't have direct permission to use it?

Nosslak

I'd say that it's because you don't want to cast any doubt on your own ability. To me if you purchase ready made assets that means that you're either unable to make them yourself or just too lazy to do it. Neither of these qualities are something anyone wants to project into the work that they'll show to potential employers. I'm no environment artist, but I realize that it takes a lot of time to make everything on your own, however if you were to look at other artists that is exactly what they do and why their projects are so impressive.
Additionally it could also, depending on how many assets you were to purchase, be difficult to clearly point out all instances of purchased assets in the description for the project.